‘My Fantasy Is to Ride a Unicorn Nightly’: Fantasy-Themed Metal Band Castle Rat

While plenty of rockers have taken inspiration from epic fantasy, only a handful have fully embraced the mythical lifestyle. Sure, they could embellish their album sleeves with ghouls, goblins, manacled maidens and muscular warriors, but has an artist ever been forced to retrieve a missing mythical horn from a wintry landscape in the heart of winter? Has a performer spent time straining their eyes in the back of a road transport, repairing their own chainmail?

Embracing the Mythos

Created in 2019, Brooklyn’s Castle Rat have had to face both these scenarios and additional ones as they embody their grand tales. Starting with heraldic, earworm-heavy tunes to stunning concerts, outfit creation, visuals and album art, they’re not so much a rock act as a full immersive experience.

“It wasn’t planned to be a themed musical group,” explains singer, guitarist, sword-carrier and visionary Riley Pinkerton as the musicians’ transport travels from a sold-out gig in a German city to a second one in another town – they are playing five gigs in the UK currently. “After a couple of performances and received an offer on a spooky event, where I made a last-minute decision to put on an outfit. It was all super-DIY, but we had so much fun and the energy was incredible. I thought, ‘How about if we could have such enjoyment at every show?’”

Development of Castle Rat

After that, the ensemble – which showcases Pinkerton as the “Queen Rat” joined by a medic from history (bassist), haughty vampire (lead guitarist) and enigmatic nature priest (rhythm keeper) – never turned back. The Bestiary, the follow-up record, brings to mind of famous rock groups joining forces to struggle onward through a mythical painted realm – a heroic opus that places them on the brink of far grander things.

The release was a new experience for Pinkerton in that she welcomed contributions to her fellow members. “It made it a much better record,” she says of the collaborative process. “I had difficulty at first – I often experienced a specific level of pride being a woman in music going it alone. There have been numerous occasions where I’ve got off stage and an audience member will say, ‘The band create awesome guitar parts!’ and I’m like, ‘Wait – I composed all that.’”

Artistry and Imagination

As their fame has expanded, so has the scale of their stage presentation. “The saying I live by is always that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton smiles. At first, she had been on track for a art school education before hesitating at the possibility of financial burden. “The exciting part about Castle Rat is there’s so many different ways to express artistic expression,” she says. “From crafting disguises, outfit planning, learning how to edit clips … it’s all stuff I don’t know how to do, but it’s fun to figure it out on the fly.”

Even though building the band’s intricate lore (“The team is pushing me to write it down because it’s all in here,” Riley says, pointing to her head) and stitching garments were insufficient, the singer self-educated how to make chainmail – no mean feat, though she confessedly entrusted her completely original reptilian-inspired outfit to a professional in the city. “It’s as if actual armour,” she beams.

Audience Reaction and Challenges

Regarding the fans? They embraced the theatrical gore, toy blades and crafted rodent bones with equal enthusiasm as the musicians. “We had a gig in the Motor City and it looked like a historical festival,” recalls Riley happily. “The whole crowd was in capes, animal hides, chainmail.”

However, this doesn’t mean, nevertheless, that life on the road as fantasy adventurers has been easy. “Everything is constantly breaking and becomes fixed temporarily,” Riley says. “Plus I get countless concepts as to how I want things to look, but we are on the move in a bus with only so much space. It’s a unique problem to create the impression like a mythic tale, then compress it into minimal luggage.”

We’ve encountered additional practical issues that didn’t affect fictional warriors. “We experienced an ‘oh shit’ moment when we played SonicBlast festival in the European country and my luggage – which had my weapon in it – went missing,” says Riley. “This became a terrible situation, because there’s not an alternative version of the show where I lack a sword.”

Future Ambitions

Like a true warrior queen, Riley is eager about the days to come. “I aim to reach all the way – let’s do stadiums,” she says. “The main aspect that’s truly essential to me is preserving the handmade style, making sure everything is custom-made. It’s a component I want to remain faithful to, whatever we scale to. Plus, I wish to ride out on a mythical beast every night. Think about how legends use vehicles in concerts? Exactly that, but on a mythical creature.”